To open
the next scene, a crane shot moves down from the high metal gate of Seward's
Sanitarium. The scene dissolves to the gardens and grounds of the sanitarium
below, where the camera uneasily moves around through an odd assortment
of attendants and patients. Suddenly, a terrifying cry is heard from the left,
yet the camera wildly swings to the right to
capture the hysterical reaction of one of two patients on a bench: "He probably
wants his flies again!" While the patient laughs and screeches hysterically
in the background, the camera tracks up to the second-story sanitarium
room where two men struggle together. A truly crazy and tortured Renfield,
who feeds on flies and spiders, begs his asylum attendant/orderly Martin
(Charles Gerrard) to let him keep a spider for a meal [this recalls the
Count's words:
"The spider spinning his web for the unwary fly"]:

An eminent, white-coated scientist, middle-European (Netherlands)
doctor and Professor named Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) is introduced
in close-up. With thick glasses over his eyes, he sits at his desk pouring
out and examining a dark-colored liquid from a test tube. As he rips off
his glasses and the camera pulls back, four other dark figures are revealed
around his desk awaiting his determination. An expert authority on the
occult, he has been called in by Seward to explain the strange deaths.
The unorthodox physician is testing a blood sample from Renfield at the
Sanitarium, and attempting to secure proof through his findings that Renfield
is "undead" -
the mortal slave of a vampire:

Van Helsing: Gentlemen, we are dealing with the undead...Yes, Nosferatu,
the undead, the vampire. The vampire attacks the throat. It leaves two little
wounds, white with red centers. Dr. Seward, your patient Renfield whose blood
I have just analyzed, is obsessed with the idea that he must devour living
things in order to sustain his own life.
Seward: Well, Professor Van Helsing, modern medical science does not admit
of such a creature. The vampire is a pure myth, superstition.
Van Helsing: I may be able to bring you proof, that the superstition of yesterday
can become the scientific reality of today.

Afterwards, Renfield is brought to Van Helsing and Seward
for an examination. The patient anxiously raves about wanting to be released
from the hospital because his outbursts give Mina "bad dreams":

Renfield: Oh, Dr. Seward. Send me away from this place. Send me
far away...My cries at night. They might disturb Miss Mina...They might give
her bad dreams, Professor Van Helsing. Bad dreams.
(A wolf's howl is heard as the sun sets - Dracula rises from his coffin in
the nearby Abbey.)
Van Helsing: That sounded like a wolf.
Seward: Yes, it did. But I hardly think there are wolves so near London...
Van Helsing: We know why the wolves talk, do we not Mr. Renfield? And we know
how we can make them stop.

Van Helsing perceptively knows that the wolfish howling
is the vampire's communication with Renfield. The doctor holds up a plant
in front of Renfield - its scent makes him violently shriek, hiss, and
back away. As he is taken back to his room to be closely watched, Renfield
threatens that Miss Mina will be harmed. Van Helsing describes how the
plant, named wolfsbane, is used in central Europe: "The natives there use
it to protect themselves against vampires."

Later that night, Renfield, now a dessicated inmate of the
lunatic asylum, is pleased to see his Master in the Sanitarium's garden,
but then, Dracula silently and hypnotically commands the lunatic to obey
him. The enslaved madman sobs uncontrollably: "No Master, please. Please
don't ask me to do that. Don't! Not her. Please! Please don't, Master!
Don't, please! Please! Oh don't!"

As Mina
sleeps that night, Dracula flies in her room as a bat and preys on her.
He approaches and bends over toward her neck in close-up, to suck the blood
from her neck (off-screen), in another scene of lustful thirst. The screen
discreetly turns black. As with Lucy, the delicate young woman's personality
starts to change.

Troubled, she tells her sweetheart and fiancee, John, that she is having
terrible nightmarish dreams and is fast losing her life-blood:

And just as I was commencing to get drowsy, I heard dogs howling.
And when the dream came, it seemed the whole room was filled with mist. It
was so thick, I could just see the lamp by the bed, a tiny spark in the fog.
And then I saw two red eyes staring at me, and a white livid face came down
out of the mist. It came closer and closer. I felt its breath on my face,
and then its lips, ohhh,...and then in the morning, I felt so weak. It seemed
as if all the life had been drained out of me.

Van Elsing overhears Mina's conversation with John, and
asks to examine her throat. There, he finds two tell-tale bite marks -
they first appeared the morning after the dream. John asks: "What could have caused them, Professor?"
Just then, almost as an answer to the question, "Count Dracula" is introduced
by a maid as a visitor. Although they have never met, the Professor is complimented
by Dracula for being "a most distinguished scientist whose name we know,
even in the wild Transylvania." Mina reacts expectantly toward Dracula's
unholy presence - her breathing visibly accelerates as she watches him.
When he turns toward her, she leans forward toward him with a imperceptible
yearning. Dracula attributes Mina's bad dreams to his grim tales of his
far-off country.

As Dracula talks directly next to Mina, John opens a small
cigarette box with a mirror inside its lid. Van Helsing notices that although
Mina's reflection is seen, Dracula does not cast a reflection. It is a
pivotal moment in the film - a sure sign that he is a vampire. In a second
view as Van Helsing [and the film audience] bends closer to the mirrored
case for a better look, Dr. Seward and Mina both show a reflection but
there is a large gap between them where Dracula stands. At another angle,
as Dracula asks permission to inquire about Mina's health, he again casts
no reflection. To confront the Count, Van Helsing shows Dracula "a most amazing phenomenon" that he
stumbled upon a moment earlier. He opens the mirrored box right in front
of Dracula. The Count immediately slaps it out of his hands, and then humbly
apologizes to escape detection: "Dr. Seward...I dislike mirrors. Van Helsing
will explain."
With a wild, mad look on his face, Dracula compliments the well-known vampire
hunter Van Helsing before hastily exiting:

For one who has not lived even a single lifetime, you are a wise
man, Van Helsing.

After Dracula makes a quick apology and suddenly leaves,
Harker strides to the terrace and notices "a huge dog" running across the lawn where the
vampire retreated. Van Helsing realizes that Dracula transformed himself
into a wolf to prevent them from following him. The scientist, who has
dedicated his life to battling the undead, identifies Dracula as "our vampire." He
explains something about the characteristics and habits of vampires:

A vampire casts no reflection in the glass. That is why Dracula
smashed the mirror...The strength of the vampire is that people will not
believe in him.

Meanwhile, Mina has left the house and is soon victimized by Dracula. The
vampire lifts his black cape and wraps it around her, entirely enveloping
her. Van Helsing continues his explanation to his listeners inside:

A vampire, Mr. Harker, is a being that lives after its death by
drinking the blood of the living. It must have blood or it dies. Its power
lasts only from sunset to sunrise. During the hours of the day, it must
rest in the earth in which it was buried.

Van Helsing expects that Dracula must have brought his native soil with
him, boxes of earth large enough for him to rest in, from Transylvania to
England.

A crazed Renfield enters the room and tells them that it
is too late, his predictions have come true: "I begged you to send me away but you wouldn't.
Now it's too late. It's happened again...." He turns to John and implores
him to take Mina far away: "Take her away from here. Take her away before..."
Suddenly, a bat flaps at the open window, apparently listening to the conversation.
Renfield trembles with fear, realizing Dracula will punish him for betrayal.
The camera glides slowly toward him as he exclaims: "No, no Master. I wasn't
going to say anything. I told them nothing. I'm loyal to you, Master."

When Van Helsing questions Renfield's association with Dracula,
Renfield denies any knowledge: "I never even heard the name before." The lunatic
is warned that he will die in torment if there is innocent blood on his
soul. Renfield shivers: "Oh no. God will not take a lunatic's soul. He
knows that the powers of evil are too great for those of us with weak minds."

A loud scream is head, and a maid rushes into the house,
crying that Mina's body is lying "dead" on the lawn. While they all rush
to attend to Mina, the maid is left alone with Renfield. He gives an insane-sounding
laugh, causing the frightened maid to faint and slump to the floor. Then,
crawling on his hands and knees up to her body, Renfield reaches out for
her. [The denouement of the scene was excised from the final version of
the film.] Mina is carried in, alive, but under Dracula's spell and influence.

Later that evening, Lucy, the vampire's bride, (a mysterious "Woman in
White"),
makes an attack upon some children, heard crying in the distance by a policeman.
A white-shrouded figure - Lucy - is seen walking in a trance away from the
scene into the darkness. Martin reads the next day's newspaper account of
the attack to two curious asylum nurses:

Further attacks on small children committed after dark by the mysterious
Woman in White took place last night. Narratives of two small girls, each
child describing a beautiful lady in white who promised her chocolates,
enticed her to a secluded spot, and there bit her slightly in the throat.

Van Helsing questions Mina about her friend Lucy. Mina confesses that Lucy
has become a victim of vampire Dracula's lust for blood:

Van Helsing: And when was the next time you saw Miss Lucy - after
she was buried?
Mina: I was downstairs on the terrace. She came out of the shadows and stood
looking at me. I started to speak to her, and then I remembered she was dead.
Well, the most horrible expression came over her face. She looked like a hungry
animal, a wolf. And then she turned and ran back into the dark.

Mina also confesses that Lucy is the Woman in White. Van
Helsing promises to release Lucy from her bondage: "...after tonight, she will remain at
rest, her soul released from this horror." Mina is relieved that her friend
will no longer suffer, that her soul will be saved after death. Then she
asks for the salvation of her own soul: "Promise me you'll save mine." John
grabs her arm, telling her that she will not die. Mina cautions him about
how her life has changed:

Van Helsing is worried that it is approaching toward evening
and another horrible night will be upon them. John stubbornly plans to
take Mina back to London, but Van Helsing asserts his Old World authority.
He wants Mina to stay there in her own bedroom for safety's sake with wolfsbane
and an attendant nurse as precautions: "Both this room and your bedroom have been
prepared with wolfsbane. You will be safe if Dracula returns." Van Helsing
instructs a nurse:

Miss Mina is to wear this wreath of wolfsbane when she goes to bed.
Watch her closely and see that she does not remove it in her sleep...And under
no circumstances must these windows be opened tonight.

When the sun sets, Dracula emerges once again from his coffin under Carfax
Abbey. Van Helsing summarizes his conclusions about Dracula to Mina's father:

You will recollect that Dracula cast no reflection in the mirror...and
that three boxes of earth were delivered to him at Carfax Abbey...and knowing
that a vampire must rest by day in his native soil, I am convinced that this
Dracula is no legend but an undead creature whose life has been unnaturally
prolonged.

Van Helsing won't permit Mina's departure with John: "If you take her from
under our protection, you will kill her." Van Helsing tells John that there
is only one way to save Mina's life: "Our only chance of saving Miss Mina's
life is to find the hiding place of Dracula's living corpse and to drive
a stake through its heart." Renfield has snuck into the room (his shadow
lurks at the door) and heard their conversation, wondering: "Isn't this
a strange conversation for men who aren't crazy?" Dr. Seward phones Martin,
the asylum attendant, to come and retrieve the escaped patient. While
waiting for Martin, Renfield presents a graphic description of Dracula's
hypnotic power. The enslaved Renfield was promised red-blooded rats for
his obedience:

He came and stood below my window in the moonlight. And he promised
me things, not in words but by doing them...by making them happen. A red mist
spread over the lawn, coming on like a flame of fire. And then he parted it
and I could see that there were thousands of rats, with eyes blazing red,
like his only smaller. And then he held up his hand and they all stopped and
I thought he seemed to be saying, 'Rats, rats, rats, thousands, millions of
them, all red blood, all these will I give you if you obey me.'

During the telling of the description, Dracula appears at
an open doorway in the house. Curious, Van Helsing asks what Renfield was
ordered to do. Renfield proudly answers, with a hideous laugh: "That which has already
been done."
Then, Dracula returns and tries to overcome Van Helsing in the Sewards' living
room in a war of words:

Dracula: Now that you have learned what you have learned, it would
be well for you to return to your own country.
Van Helsing: I prefer to remain and protect those whom you would destroy.
Dracula: You are too late. My blood now flows through her veins. She will
live through the centuries to come, as I have lived.
Van Helsing: Should you escape us Dracula, we know how to save Miss Mina's
soul, if not her life.
Dracula: If she dies, by day. But I shall see that she dies by night.
Van Helsing: And I will have Carfax Abbey torn down stone by stone, excavated
a mile around. I will find your earth box and drive that stake through your
heart.

Dracula fixes Van Helsing with his powerful stare and attempts to overpower
the vampire fighter, commanding him to come closer, but Van Helsing's will
is very powerful. The Dutch doctor pulls out a cross from his coat pocket
to drive him away. Dracula hisses, and moves backward, throwing his cape
across his face to shield himself, and then flees from the house.

The attendant nurse tells John about Mina's unusual behavior,
how she won't go to sleep, and how the windows were strangely opened: "I felt strangely
dizzy. And when it cleared away, Miss Mina was up and dressed and out on the
terrace, and I can't get her to go to bed." On the open-air terrace, Mina
complains of the restrictions she has been placed under, and the smell of
the awful weed, but she also feels alive for once. However, Dracula's blood
has been merged with hers, making her his undead bride. As John looks up
at the stars in the clear evening's sky, Mina's blood-lust has been provoked.
Animalistically, she stares intently at John's neck as if she wants to hungrily
bite him. Fixed malevolently on him, she is ready to strike. Now a vampire,
Mina loves the night:

Oh, but I love the fog. I love nights with fog...I love the night.
That's the only time I feel really alive.

Just then, a bat flies over them. John waves his arms at
the bat hovering above and finally chases it away. Mina however, talks
to it, acquiescing to Dracula's command of murder: "Yes...yes...I will," but
then denies it. Trance-like, Mina's frightening eyes take on a strange,
feral appearance, and she moves forward again toward John's neck. A close-up
of her hungry, sexually-desirous face crosses the screen from right to
left toward him. Fortunately, Van Helsing vigilantly protects John and
rescues him with his pocket-sized crucifix, and Mina screams in revulsion.
John gradually realizes she is one of Dracula's victims when she cowers
from the cross and admits her enslavement. She has been made Dracula's
living slave by being forced to drink the vampire's own blood, something
she describes with sexual metaphors:

Dracula, he...He came to me. He opened his veins in his arms and
he made me drink.

A gunshot is heard. Out on the lawn, Martin has aimed and
shot his rifle at a large gray bat. Van Helsing tells him that bullets
are powerless. Martin turns to a maid: "They're all crazy. They're all
crazy except you and me. Sometimes I have me doubts about you."

In the predawn hours, Dracula returns to Mina's bedroom
and enters. He hypnotizes the nurse and forces her to open the large doors
onto the terrace. He leads Mina, his intended bride, away from the estate
to his subterranean chambers in the Abbey. Meanwhile, Van Helsing and Harker
follow the mad Renfield to Carfax Abbey where they expect to find Dracula's
box of earth. Dracula is greeted by Renfield who has escaped his cell: "Master. Master,
I'm here."
Renfield rushes up the long winding staircase to the underground vaults and
asks: "What is it, Master? What do you want me to do?" Peering into the
Abbey through barred windows, Van Helsing and Harker see Dracula taking
Mina down the stairs with Renfield blocking the path. They cry out for
her.

Dracula believes that Renfield has betrayed him, by directly leading the
two vampire-hunters there. Renfield pleads for mercy, sobbing:

I didn't lead them here, Master. I didn't know. I swear. No! No!...I'm
loyal to you Master. I'm your slave. I didn't betray you. Oh no don't! Don't
kill me. Let me live please! Punish me, torture me, but let me live! I can't
die with all those lives on my conscience! All that blood on my hands!

Renfield's entreaties are to no avail. In an incredible scene, Dracula
kills his inept slave by strangling him, lifting him by the throat, and
tossing his body down the massive staircase. Then, he takes Mina in his
arms and flees to the cellar crypt. Van Helsing and Harker find an entrance
into the Abbey and chase Dracula through the huge, dirty rooms of the catacombs.
As the sun rises, Dracula disappears by entering into his coffin.

In the conclusion to this classic horror film, Harker and Van Helsing push
open a large, creaking door as Mina screams. Van Helsing discovers a room
with two coffins. Raising the lid of the first coffin, Van Helsing
finds Dracula's coffin. [Now that it is after sunrise, the vampire is helpless.
The coming of the dawn has prevented Dracula from consummating the transformation
of Mina.] Although the two vampire-killers at first hesitate to look into
the second coffin, sensing that Mina may be inside, they find that it is
empty.

Van Helsing prepares a sharp, pointed wooden stake to drive into Dracula's
heart. John continues to call for Mina and look in other coffins for her,
but cannot find her anywhere. Dracula is sent to eternal damnation, making
agonized groans (offscreen) when Van Helsing pounds and drives the stake
into his undead heart while he is sleeping in his coffin. In another part
of the subterranean cellar, Mina feels his agonizing death pains, and screams
as Dracula is impaled.

Mina is located by the sound of her screams. John rushes to her and hugs
her. Mina appears to come out of her trance - released from Dracula's powers
and curse. She tells John as they embrace:

Mina: Oh, John, John, darling. I heard you calling but I couldn't
say anything.
Harker: We thought he'd killed you, dear.
Mina: The daylight stopped him. Oh, if you could have seen the look on his
face.
Van Helsing (assuring her): There's nothing more to fear, Miss Mina. Dracula
is dead forever. No, no, no. You must go.
Mina: But aren't you coming with us?
Van Helsing: Not yet. Uh...presently. Come, John.

Van Helsing remains behind as John and Mina are reunited and walk up the
winding staircase - sunlight streams through the windows. The forces of light
triumph. In the distance, church bells are heard ringing.